Before the meeting, I threw away the dead rat under the stairs for good luck.
On Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 12:24 AM, Danny O'Brien <danny at spesh.com> wrote:
> Meeting Notes 2011 01 04
>> Agenda
>> The 142nd Meeting of Noisebridge
>> Note-taker: Danny O'Brien
>> Moderator: Danny O'Brien
>> It was a total nightmare. First of all, Josh organised this whole "Show and
> Tell" (Tuesdays, 7.30) thing right before, so instead of limbering up for
> proper consensus and correct producedure, everyone sat around looking at
> Mike's ingenious elevator light LED hack and how he planned it, and a new
> kind of logic analyser that's basically just six wires and a USB connector,
> and some routers(?). Then they all discussed the hacks they were working on,
> and some ideas they were mulling, and sought out advice and shared knowledge
> with their peers.
>> This was all apparently so "interesting" that by the time anyone wanted to
> stop, it was 8.20 already so basically we'd already screwed up the whole
> rules and procedures of the meeting. Nice job, Josh. Real smooth.
>> I kept waiting for someone to sue us for this, but they didn't.
>> Then I tried to get Dr Jesus to head the meeting, because he looks like a
> natural leader, doesn't he? But he was too busy talking to Gian Pablo about
> how to repair the Makerbot, and seemed almost happy at shirking his genetic
> responsibilities.
>> By 8.30pm I realised that I was going to have to head the meeting
> "do-acratically" myself before our previously finely-tuned decision-making
> process descended into unmanageable chaos.
>> I went and got the member binder and started noisily flicking through it,
> which I thought would at least shut people up. Finally I worked out how to
> get the projector screen to come down, but couldn't get the video to work.
> That attracted a few people's attention who "wanted to help".
>> It was time to consense.
>> Introduction and Names
>> UNFORTUNATELY, just when I was getting to bit where I explain to everyone
> what Noisebridge is, our code of honor, how to get here if you're not here
> already etc, Miloh started being disruptive and un-excellent and said "Hey,
> everyone knows this stuff here, right?.
>> As moderator, I quickly established consensus through a show of hands that
> everyone indeed knew this stuff.
>> Miloh then proposed that instead of doing the usual meeting procedure, we
> should have a guided tour of the space, revealing secrets that many people
> did not know, even members. Before I had a chance to even THINK of blocking,
> everyone bloody consensed on this too.
>> Look, can I at least read out the binder names? I whined, correctly.
>> But it was too late, everyone was following Miloh around to see the
> electronics lab and heard a bunch of so called "secret knowledge" like what
> a Hell Box is, where you can find Quagga, how easy it would be to program
> the life-playing Big LED sign to do other stuff, how to get an account on
> pony, how cool the $500 de-solderer is, how to use John's new flat storage
> area in the FabLab, how you should put empty bottles by the third sink
> because we're going to be making a load of Kambucha, pondered on whether we
> should keep the shrink-wrap machine, learned the secret Masonic History of
> 2169 Mission, and the true origin of some of Noisebridge's most famous
> smells.
>> I tried writing all of this down, but our meeting notes don't even have a
> category for stuff like this. I therefore ruled myself out of order and
> deleted it.
>> I did scribble down everyone's names though, as per procedure, and for
> purposes of future prosecution. If you want to know these secrets, which go
> against every principle of openness Noisebridge stands for, you could ask
> Jack, Miloh of course, and Carl. Gescykae and John Neurofog were also
> troublemaking (both of whom don't even have User pages yet, which is I
> believe a violation of our lease).
>> Financial Report
>> Treasurer Kelly wasn't around, because if she had been, I'm sure this
> mess-up could NOT HAVE HAPPENED.
>> Membership Binder
>> No new members, but a bunch of people getting close. Chandra and Jack, turn
> up to next meeting to be induced into the Academy of People Who Don't Have
> The Common Decency to Listen When You're Moderating them.
>> What's Going On At Noisebridge
>> Apparently, "everyone knows this shit seriously Danny let it go".
>> Announcements
>> Someone announced they were going off to fix the door-opening mechanism.
> Everyone wandered off to help. WTF? WE'RE NOT EVEN DONE.
>> Consensus Items
>> None. I suggested we debate banning someone for the space for what they said
> on noisebridge-discuss that one time, but everyone continued to have "better
> things to do".
>> I was pretty much crying at this point.
>> Discussion Items
>> Finally! Andy turned up and pointed out that do need to consense about what
> voting system to use for the board elections.
>> Please do this next week, PROPERLY. I have carefully expanded the meeting
> template documentation so a meeting can never go this far wrong ever ever
> again.
>> It is consoling to me you can fix any problem by adding more documentation.
>> End of Meeting
>> I said that I was going home to write up the meeting notes. Miloh said "Hey,
> can you do it in the form of a mid-nineties cyberpunk novel this time?", and
> everyone started telling me what kind of awesome character they wanted to be
> and what tricked out skateboard they would be riding.
>> You know what? You people all totally deserve each other.
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